New to the hobby!

Hello all! I read an article on the Strasburg superfractor that sold for 16k and I figured, heck, I should start collecting baseball cards! I bough a few packs of Topps seires 2 and pulled a nice Honus Wagner bat relic numbered to /99. I read online about how Bowman had Strasburg cards in it so I went to my local card shop to look for them and he did not have any. About a week passed and I tried out my local Target, to no avail. Finally I looked at my local Walmart and there they were, a box FULL of Bowman packs! I picked up 5 packs off the top and headed home. I opened the packs and :shock: what do I find?! I got a purple bordered Stephen Strasburg chrome card numbered to /999 and another Stephen Strasburg chrome card numbered to /777! I also got a Logan Forsythe autograph! Now I'm thinking of going back and getting more packs because I got my 5 last week and my girlfriend said they still had a full box there yesterday!

Great Start!

Remember to enjoy yourself, dont slave to the $$$ amounts

Welcome, and congratulations.

I will tell you that I have ripped through a TON, and I mean a great deal of retail, pulled about 40 purple refractors among other stuff, and not one single strasburg parallel. Oh yeah, and i ripped 2 1/2 cases of jumbos and no stras parallels.... Luckily i pulled two of his autgraphs.

Congratulations. Those two cards are selling for about $300 combined on ebay. VERY NICE!

skrip

sldorange91 said:

Hello all! I read an article on the Strasburg superfractor that sold for 16k and I figured, heck, I should start collecting baseball cards! I bough a few packs of Topps seires 2 and pulled a nice Honus Wagner bat relic numbered to /99. I read online about how Bowman had Strasburg cards in it so I went to my local card shop to look for them and he did not have any. About a week passed and I tried out my local Target, to no avail. Finally I looked at my local Walmart and there they were, a box FULL of Bowman packs! I picked up 5 packs off the top and headed home. I opened the packs and :shock: what do I find?! I got a purple bordered Stephen Strasburg chrome card numbered to /999 and another Stephen Strasburg chrome card numbered to /777! I also got a Logan Forsythe autograph! Now I'm thinking of going back and getting more packs because I got my 5 last week and my girlfriend said they still had a full box there yesterday!

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Welcome to the asylum.

Threads like these are awesome.

Welcome aboard.

Run away... quickly!!

Just kidding. Welcome to the hobby. This is a great place to learn about it, which is especially important nowadays with the volatility in the market (personally I would sell the Strasburgs now as prices are higher than pretty much any other prospect/rookie in baseball history.)

The primary warning I would throw out there is not to get addicted. In many ways opening packs is like buying scratch off tickets. Of course I know nothing of your financial situation (I am not making a judgment just offering a general bit of info as many have had this issue) but make sure the numbers make sense.

Again, this is a great boards, and welcome.

Resident Piazza Fan said:

sldorange91 said:

Hello all! I read an article on the Strasburg superfractor that sold for 16k and I figured, heck, I should start collecting baseball cards! I bough a few packs of Topps seires 2 and pulled a nice Honus Wagner bat relic numbered to /99. I read online about how Bowman had Strasburg cards in it so I went to my local card shop to look for them and he did not have any. About a week passed and I tried out my local Target, to no avail. Finally I looked at my local Walmart and there they were, a box FULL of Bowman packs! I picked up 5 packs off the top and headed home. I opened the packs and :shock: what do I find?! I got a purple bordered Stephen Strasburg chrome card numbered to /999 and another Stephen Strasburg chrome card numbered to /777 :shock: ! I also got a Logan Forsythe autograph! Now I'm thinking of going back and getting more packs because I got my 5 last week and my girlfriend said they still had a full box there yesterday!

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Welcome to the asylum.

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hahaha
And welcome!!! great job on the strasburgs and forsythe aint bad himself! cards are like crack but can cost more

sldorange91 said:

I read an article on the Strasburg superfractor that sold for 16k and I figured, heck, I should start collecting baseball cards!

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Now there's motivation for you.

Those are some great pulls. Congrats and welcome

Beginners luck :evil: Just kidding man. Welcome to the hobby and great pulls!

Thanks for the encouragement guys! And yeah, I have had to fight the urge to go and buy more packs but I know I just got extremely lucky. Also, is it worth it to send the cards in to the "graded"? I am not sure whether to sell or not because I'd like to get them graded and put in a nice plastic slab thing (sorry I don't know what it is called ::facepalm:: ) and keep them. But I'm not sure.

sldorange91 said:

Thanks for the encouragement guys! And yeah, I have had to fight the urge to go and buy more packs but I know I just got extremely lucky. Also, is it worth it to send the cards in to the "graded"? I am not sure whether to sell or not because I'd like to get them graded and put in a nice plastic slab thing (sorry I don't know what it is called ::facepalm:: ) and keep them. But I'm not sure.

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SELL!

Unless you're a seller of course!

ThoseBackPages said:

Great Start!

Remember to enjoy yourself, dont slave to the $$$ amounts

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trademhigh said:

Threads like these are awesome.

Welcome aboard.

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+1

Welcome!

Canocollector#1 said:

sldorange91 said:

Thanks for the encouragement guys! And yeah, I have had to fight the urge to go and buy more packs but I know I just got extremely lucky. Also, is it worth it to send the cards in to the "graded"? I am not sure whether to sell or not because I'd like to get them graded and put in a nice plastic slab thing (sorry I don't know what it is called ::facepalm:: ) and keep them. But I'm not sure.

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SELL!

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Yes, sell. It's going to take a lot of strikeouts by Strasburg, and some darn-near perfect baseball for these $$ numbers to stay where they are.

Very nice pulls. The chromes you pulled are not chromes, they're refractors which basically means if you shine light on them, the light will..well..refract off of the card in all colors of the rainbow(in order, too..ROYGBIV). You'll soon be able to easily recognize the difference between refractors and base chromes.

Ant

sldorange91 said:

Thanks for the encouragement guys! And yeah, I have had to fight the urge to go and buy more packs but I know I just got extremely lucky. Also, is it worth it to send the cards in to the "graded"? I am not sure whether to sell or not because I'd like to get them graded and put in a nice plastic slab thing (sorry I don't know what it is called ::facepalm:: ) and keep them. But I'm not sure.

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It would really depend on the condition, something that may be hard to judge as a beginner. They look closely at centering, edges, corners and surface to come up with a grade. If the card is really sharp it could grade 9.5 and it would sell for a nice amount more. All it takes is a couple of very small flaws and it's an 8.5 and sells no better than the card raw.

Topnotchsy said:

sldorange91 said:

Thanks for the encouragement guys! And yeah, I have had to fight the urge to go and buy more packs but I know I just got extremely lucky. Also, is it worth it to send the cards in to the "graded"? I am not sure whether to sell or not because I'd like to get them graded and put in a nice plastic slab thing (sorry I don't know what it is called ::facepalm:: ) and keep them. But I'm not sure.

Click to expand...

It would really depend on the condition, something that may be hard to judge as a beginner. They look closely at centering, edges, corners and surface to come up with a grade. If the card is really sharp it could grade 9.5 and it would sell for a nice amount more. All it takes is a couple of very small flaws and it's an 8.5 and sells no better than the card raw.

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The purple "refractor" isn't centered that well and has a small piece of gunk on it which wasn't from me because I put it in a sleeve just as I pulled it form the pack. But the chrome refractor looks perfectly centered and I can't see anything wrong with the surface at all.

Many times when I attended the Hawaii Trade Conferences in the past, I would suggest having commercials which showcase GU, autos and values, not the total crap Topps puts out now.

A picture of a David Wright card, now a Jeter, zoom goes a pic of Howard and the slogan: Topps puts you in the game. Whoopty doo, thats pure shat.

Ive said it a zilion times before, this isnt 1987, you have to emphasize value, worth and technology.

Im sure the hobby got a huge shot in the arm and many new or returning collectors because of all the news from the Strasburg superfractor.

I own a card store and I can tell you there is no shortage of people (former collectors, non collectors and possible collectors) who think todays cards are worth totally nothing because of the years of bad press and crappy stories written by journalists who know noting about the hobby.

Theres also a ton who have no idea that GU or autos are even produced. I cant tell you how many times Ive been TOLD that it cant actually be game used by a non/ past collector. Or that auto CANT be real. Or this: "I thought old cards were worth money, not today's".

So Ive been proven right twice this year between the Million Card Giveaway and Stras. Both of which bring home the three points I listed above. Maybe, just maybe Topps and MLB will do a real commercial.

Welcome aboard man.

:grouphug:

Here we are pretty crazy, the passion for all kinds of collecting is here bro.

I would suggest you familiar yourself with how the card landscape has changed over time. As in what gets hot, and what stays hot. I would pick a player or a team to collect so that the hobby can stay interesting. Remember it's not all about the money!

Good luck and welcome aboard

RandomH said:

Welcome aboard man.

:grouphug:

Here we are pretty crazy, the passion for all kinds of collecting is here bro.

I would suggest you familiar yourself with how the card landscape has changed over time. As in what gets hot, and what stays hot. I would pick a player or a team to collect so that the hobby can stay interesting. Remember it's not all about the money!

Good luck and welcome aboard

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Well I'm a huge Braves and Nationals fan, mostly the Nats and for the record I was a fan BEFORE Strasburg

How could I start out? Just get regular cards of players on the current roster?